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Detroit's pattern of growth

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Detroit's pattern of growth

by
Goodman, Robert J; Wayne State University. Audio-Visual Utilization Center

Publication date
Topics
16mm Film, Educational Film, Streets, Detroit, United States, Detroit, United States
Publisher
Robert J. Goodman, Released by Wayne State University, Audio-Visual Utilization Center
Contributor
Internet Archive
Language
English
Item Size
19.2G
Traces the various influences which have led to the present street patterns of metropolitan Detroit

Access-restricted-item
true
Addeddate
2015-02-13 23:03:47
Boxid
IA1113019
Identifier
detroitspatternofgrowth
Lccn
fia67000053
Oclc_id
4679969
Ocr
Old fool. Who do. An overhead observer the street pattern of the trite presents a strange mosaic of conflicting systems which seem to start and end with no apparent reason and to have no relation with each other however the twists and turns have their historic explanations. It all began when a group of Frenchmen led by Cadillac landed at the site of Detroit on July twenty fourth seventeen hundred and one of. Their settlement for contra train was protected on three sides by water and its four main streets parallel the shoreline of the river. Cadillac's wise indian policy help to try to become an important for trading pulls the site which provided a narrow crossing in the Great Lakes system was a focal point for Indian trail even before the white man with its new function as a trading center. More trails were worn through the wilderness. After six decades. French rule was replaced by the British. It in turn gave way to American control. When the newly appointed American administrators arrived at their Michigan territorial capital they found that a tragic fire had completely destroyed the city on June eleventh one thousand nine hundred five. One of the three judges. Augustus be what word persuaded the townspeople not to rebuild immediately but to plan for the metropolis which he envisioned. His plan was based on an equal lateral triangle four thousand feet to a side each angle was bisected by a perpendicular line to the opposite side where the streets met a rectangular park was formed. Large circular parks were also at each corner of the triangle. This system could be repeated endlessly simply by adding new triangles reversing the point each time the plan calls for a park interrupting each major thoroughfare every four thousand feet. Judge Woodward did not forsee the effect of parks on through traffic. Shown here where Second Avenue detours around Caspar. The. Plan was opposed because of its conflict with all property lines its maze of angles and the arbitrary method used to determine the with of the street. As a result only the upper part of one triangle bits of two others one rectangular park and half of one circular park where ever built the bases of these triangles parallel the shoreline rather than a cardinal directions the existing part of the Woodward Plan makes up most of the present central business district. The old Indian trails were improved when demand our military needs necessitated and provided the major land access routes to Detroit. Even today the major thoroughfares of the city which radiate from the business district follow the routes blazed centuries ago by fur trading India. These. Major routes connected rather smoothly with the remnants of the Woodward Plan with one exception it was planned to connect Raj it with Monreal Avenue but this would have ruined an orchard owned by a Mr Brush who successfully blocked this link and Raj it was built one block north. As a result thousands of motorists each day must make to turn. That turns the left avoids the old orchard fight. Traffic then travels northward along the western edge of the former growth. Finally it turns right and the driver is it last on Russia. The old French farms were long and narrow to give each farmer access to the river at that time the only sure means of transportation the boundaries drawn at right angles from the shoreline. Became roads commonly named after the owner of the adjoining land such as brush and Bobby and. The farmers had little objection to boundary roads but resisted cross streets which divided their land this has resulted in many jobs and dead ends on the street. Whereas Detroit has an adequate system of routes extending from the shoreline. Many cross streets such as Vernor were built in fragmented bit and are not smooth traffic ways. Even the egotistical judge what were not intended the avenue being named after himself to become the main street of Detroit. However it was the only spoke street that paralleled the French farm down to. Woodward is the line where many cross streets changed their name. Dividing the east and west sides of the city. Woodward is the baseline for most house numbers. In the eighteen seventies a group of citizens began a campaign for a boulevard to circle listening and opponents in the Michigan legislature said the district through which it is proposed to run is so weapon marshy that the boulevard would be a goose pondering the winter and spring months and a goose plaster in the summers or who would ever make use of it as a driveway. When in spite of all opposition. Grand Boulevard was built it to follow the traditional property line and for the most part is either at right angles or parallel to the river the exact route was determined by public spirited citizens who donated nine tenths of the land that was you. The boulevard was little traveled for a decade with the expansion which came with the auto industry the route was soon lined with the stately residences of the wealthy. Today these buildings are used primarily for convalescent hospitals. Funeral homes. Beauty salons. Day nurseries and other commercial enterprise. The wide boulevard commonly served as a boundary of new development and bus. Different people at different times. Laid out the streets on either side. In some places these diverse plans did not mesh together well this has resulted in name changes in jobs. A good example is Second Avenue one of. City's busiest thoroughfares where it crosses Grand Boulevard. Outside the boulevard and early suburb Highland Park was an established settlement long before its huge neighbors around that. This city grew around Henry Ford's Model T. plant its streets were built to conform with its main thoroughfare liberate avenues. When Detroit grew around Highland Park the street pattern of the two cities did not meet in all places. We crying several jobs such as this one on Second Avenue. Not only is there an offset at the city boundary but the older Highland Park streets are narrow or than those of Detroit. Just as most of Detroit's older streets were influenced by the early French farm the newer parts of the city were affected by the American survey pattern. By this time. Riverfront age was no longer necessary and the shoreline was completely ignored. The land was divided into square mile section using a grid of strictly north south east west line. The major service roles followed the section lines so as not. To cut through far the line drawn due west from the Old City Hall was considered zero mile road. It is now called Ford Road. One mile north is wanting to have a new. And then. Joy road. Plymouth. Schoolcraft. Frankel. Mike Nichols. Seven Mile Road eight Mile and so forth. As this area was urbanized homes developed primarily along north south street even major arteries in this direction maintained the residential character in the form of apartment or duplex on. The east west thoroughfares however became a long strings of commercial development. One reason for this pattern of growth might be that the commercial streets have an average of sixteen cross streets for miles along which almost all of the homes of the area are built the residential roads have only five cross streets for miles along which are very few homes. Liver noise the closest north south street to the city core has also become commercialized. It is one of the major used car centers of the world. In some exclusive residential areas the rectilinear grid pattern has been replaced by a complicated system of curving roadways to discourage through traffic. Many of Detroit's traffic problems are located at points where grid and shoreline systems come together. Davison is a good example. It begins at Van Dyke runs west turns and parallels the river hitting its cross streets of sharp angle as shown by its intersection with Mike Nichols. Davison continues in this direction until it reaches liver noise where it turns due west again it doesn't come out exactly on a mile line however and through traffic much shift one block north to Schoolcraft four mile road as Davison as shown here. Changes at Wyoming from a six lane divided highway to a two lane side street. Even the passes that the new freeways are influenced by the grid in Shoreline systems of St It is cheaper to use existing routes as part of the right of way then the cut across the present path of the Ford parallels the river and the lake shore line almost exactly the lodge starts perpendicular from the river. Runs due west to the grid system and then follows the Northwestern highway an old Indian trail. We have seen that Detroit has had four basic patterns of growth the downtown area which is a small part of Judge Woodward's Plan the Major spoke streets whose roots were based on old Indian trail. Streets at right angles to the shoreline along old French farm boundary and their perpendicular cost free and finally the north south east west streets of the grid system. Even the recent freeways have conform to the historic route which have from the basic pattern of the city of Detroit.
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15:23
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